Past, Present, and Future
by Emerson Grace
Summary: A bizarre case brings an old friend to the unit and just in time for some major life changes. Basically Stabler and Benson, but others included. Rated M just in case. More than likely will be several stories.


**A/N:** Yes this is a new story, swimming around my head blocking the 'Men Screaming' from my first story; bear with me.

**Dick Wolf owns all characters, except for the ones I create. The characters, you already know and love, are his. The ones you don't know are born out of my own imagination and hopefully you will learn to love them too. This is just for fun and entertainment.**

**Past, Present, and Future**

Chapter 1 – 'A War of Words'

You could hear it. It should have been impossible, with the whirl of the machines, the telephones, fax machines, the protests of innocence and/or police brutality, the crying of the victims, even the officers who suffered in silence, their frustrations mingled in the atmosphere of the Manhattan 1-6. The noise was deafening to those not use to it. To the staff that manned the station anything less then the ear splitting din was discomforting causing one to pause and look for possible trouble. As such two people arguing would be considered whispering here. However these two, there arguing seemed to cut through the noise, in fact if you asked, it could probably cut through the din of a tornado. At least to the SVU unit one could hear the arguments over the explosion of an atomic bomb. They were headed this way, the exchange started of low increasing in volume and clarity as they came down the stairs, down the hall, and around the corner into the bull pen.

"You have no viable suspects, very little evidence, or verifiable theory of the crime. The little that you do have lends itself to this theory. Just because you are outraged at the possibility doesn't make it impossible or with out merit; the least you could do is to look into it.", aggravation raising the end of the statement.

"The theory is baseless. You are wrong about a lack of evidence. We have a lot of evidence albeit generic evidence. The evidence lends itself to several theories, several legitimate theories, and all are being aggressively pursued. To go solely after one theory at this point in the investigation would be irresponsible and to run after any and every shadow is a waste of resources." It was the rebuttal that had been heard a hundred times; one could only imagine how many times he had recited in his own head.

"Elliot, I don't know why you can't even consider it…"

Elliot ran his hand down his face. He was tired of having this conversation. He almost gave in. He would give his theory an hour, a hard hour, after that he could rest that he had tried absolutely everything. Then he shook his head. No to give credence to this ridiculous idea was not his style. Elliot had a no nonsense military style, this went against everything that he knew to be true and real.

"Are you willing to write your theory up and send it to 1PP for approval?" Elliot bit the inside of his lip; the Stabler smirk was automatic, he fought it with everything he had; the look on his face came off as concentration and sternness. Elliot had him, the only thing he wished is that he'd come up with this argument a week ago.

The other gentleman hedge, twisting his hands nervously; "Elliot, it's a theory based on the evidence at hand. It needs research, fleshing out before it goes to command. You need to keep an open mind. This case is ugly from every angle and is only going to get worse the longer it takes to solve. My theory is a distinct possibility no matter how horrific the thought."

He knew he'd lost the fight; he would retreat, for now.

"You asked for a profile and I gave you every possible suspect including even the most unobvious suspect"

Dr. Huang folded his arms exhibiting confidence and determination. He rarely resorted to deliberate body language. As a psychiatrist, he had learned to be body language neutral; but going toe to toe with this Detective required use of every weapon in his arsenal.

The doctor had run out of steam, his side of the argument was done. Olivia could see that her partner was prepared for a pre-emptive strike; trying to kill any future fight before it could take life.

She stepped into the fray "Elliot, Huang is just trying to help. We are at a stand still. He is throwing out theories, like when we bounce ideas off each other. They may be far fetched but sometimes they spark an idea that actually works."

"Liv, the idea that a child could be responsible for these deaths, is not an idea that will spark anything but disgust. Huang would like us to consider that a child could be a serial killer." Elliot looked at his partner of nine years, incredulously. Silently he waited for a plausible return.

Olivia saw the imploring blue eyes, daring her to give any kind of credence to the idea. She didn't have a response, all she felt was the frustration, with nine bodies and the Brass all over them, she would have grasped on to anything that had the mere hint of closing this case. She also knew that the rest of the squad was close to the end of their wits with this case. Munch and Cragen seemed to have gotten older, by years, in the last eleven months.

Eleven months ago, with the death of Molly Sutton, the Brass had made the connection to three other murders in two other Burroughs and a decision. Molly Sutton was found in Manhattan, where she was killed was still unknown, as was where the other victims had been killed. Homicide had worked the previous cases. A Homicide task force was formed for about a month, but when the Manhattan murder victim was discovered, the whole mess was dumped off to SVU. The bodies had been posed and fully clothed. It was when you got them undressed that you saw the real crime. The cause of death was multiple stab wounds, many of which could have been fatal strike; the bodies had also been molested. Someone was killing people and then having sex with the dead body. SVU had the training and experience to deal with a sexual predator. The SVU unit at the Manhattan 1-6 was especially equipped; they had the best arrest to conviction ratio in the city.

The Brass expected a quick and fiery close to the case, hoping to quell the rising discontent with the NYPD. Weeks, however, turned into months and the body count rose. The Brass was breathing down Captain Cragen's neck insisting on fast results. There was however nothing to go on, each new body brought more questions and no answers, the Brass knew this and simply didn't care. Finally the unit was ordered to work this case and only this case. All other special victim cases were diverted to other precincts. So here they were almost a year later, arguing about possible and impossible as a killer murdered at will.


End file.
